Hello all,

I hope you all are doing well. My fiancé and I recently bought a house in Tampa, Florida which we have been in for 8 months. We are chipping away at projects around the house and are moving on to landscaping. The current landscaping of the yard includes a mature ligustrum hedge. We both like the hedge; however, I am trying to figure out what we should do with it. Right now the ligustrum is very "leggie." As you can see in the pictures the canopy is very thick where as the base has little to no leaves. I have tried to keep the canopy trimmed in order to spark growth from beneath the canopy but have been unsuccessful. Furthermore, after doing a little research I am beginning to think that there is some leaf spot along with another disease that I haven't been able to identify just yet. In the pictures you will see that the leaves do have the classic presentation of leaf spot but also the trunks and branches of the plant seem to be hollowing out. The ultimate question is should we try and save the plants or should we start over. Looking forward to your responses and if there is any other information I can give you I would be happy to.